Fathers Battling Injustice

US: Tonya Harding arrested on domestic assault charge

Posted By: Susan
Date: Thursday, 24 February 2000, at 2:45 a.m.

BOSTON GLOBE ONLINE 2/23/2000 20:14

Tonya Harding arrested on domestic assault charge By Associated Press

CAMAS, Washington [small mill town approx. 40 km NE of Portland, Oregon] (AP) Former Olympic ice skater Tonya Harding was arrested after being accused of throwing a hubcap at her live-in boyfriend and repeatedly punching him in the face.

Harding, 29, was ordered to appear Thursday in Camas Municipal Court.

She was booked Tuesday night for investigation of fourth-degree domestic violence assault after an altercation that left Darren Silver's face bruised and bloodied, Camas police said. She was released an hour later.

Police said Harding and Silver, 28, have lived together for about three years.

According to police, Harding and Silver, both of whom appeared intoxicated, began fighting Tuesday night in a barn they use as a garage behind their house. Two men inside the barn told officers Harding threw a hubcap at Silver, hitting him in the face, then began pummeling him with punches.

Police said Harding told officers Silver had held her on the ground and she hit him to protect herself, a statement police said witness accounts did not back up.

Harding, who teaches figure skating at a Portland, Ore., mall, was arrested and ordered to stay away from Silver.

Harding gained national attention in 1994 when she pleaded guilty to covering up for her former husband and his friends, who hatched a plot to injure Harding's chief rival, skater Nancy Kerrigan, as Kerrigan practiced for the national figure skating championship. Harding won the championship and later competed at the 1994 Lillehammer Olympic games.

Harding was banned from amateur skating for life later that year because of her role in the attack.

Copyright 1999 Globe Newspaper Company